Soil Salinity and Climate Change: Strategies for Mitigation of Salt Stress to Sustainable Agriculture
摘要
Soil salinity remains a critical challenge to agricultural sustainability around the world, worsened by climate change. Currently, salt-affected land is over 833 million hectares, and nearly 20% of irrigated land is undergoing salinization. Climate change adds to this problem with higher temperatures, changing precipitation, and increased evapotranspiration, which leads to salt buildup within the root zone. It is anticipated that without mitigation measures, salinity will disrupt up to 50% of arable land by 2050. Quantitative data suggests that depending on the crop species and level of salinity, salt stress can decrease yields from 10–70%. Wheat yields fall by 36% when Electrical Conductivity (ECe) surpasses 6 dS/m, rice also faces a 48% cut in yields at the same threshold. Salinity also undermines the efficacy of nitrogen use, reducing the efficiency by as much as 30%. A combination of genetic, hydrological, and agronomic interventions aids in circumventing solutions. Leaching practices can decant 80% of soluble salts from the soil profile with a leaching fraction of 15–20% and subsurface drainage systems reduce the water table’s depth and salinity, enhancing yield by 25–50% in the more afflicted areas. Applying saline-tolerant cultivars such as salt-tolerant wheat and barley has resulted in 15–30% yield improvements during moderate salinity periods. Balanced NPKs improve stress tolerance, enhance nutrient management, and result in a 20–40% improvement in biomass during field trials. Remote sensing and crop modeling technologies, like DSSAT and AquaCrop, allow for tailored advice and prediction of crop outcomes across varying levels of salinity and climatic changes, enhancing the management of resources and informed decision making. These approaches collectively have the potential to mitigate the impact of salinity on agricultural output up to 60%, thus strengthening food availability under shifting climate conditions.